For our science final, our class needed to research, write and present (film) a TED (“TalonTED) Talk on a topic we were interested. The only criteria was that it had to be linked to science.

I chose “cultured” meat or “lab-grown” meat for my topic and how this will be a huge advancement in food technology for the world. In my talk, I discuss what cultured meat is, why it is needed, the 4 major benefits it gives to our world, and why it’s a better choice then conventional, regular meat.

Enjoy!

This is my introductory slide. I tried to edit it in but it wouldn’t work so… Anyways, here it is!

*My mom’s in the corner of the video because she accidentally got caught on film. Oops!*

10 Comments

Tori

Great Ted Talk! I found this topic really interesting, and it is definitely relevant to everyone’s future. I liked your set up, and the slides in the background were very helpful as well, to help portray what you were telling us. I also loved your format. It had a very smooth flow to it, and was easy to follow. It was good that you started with the reason why we should be growing meat rather than using animals in the first place, which got me hooked, and then went into more in detail and explained how we would set out to make this lab-grown meat a part of our diet. You did an awesome job connecting this to everyone and explaining why your topic is so important, and your use of graphs/charts was really effective. Here are some questions I have about your talk.

1. How many years do you believe it will take until this sort of meat can be found in grocery stores?

2. Are there any differences in the health of lab-grown meat vs real meat?

3. This question is for any vegetarian that would like to give insight… would this meat be considered vegetarian or not?

Your ted talk was really well researched and super interesting to watch! Good job!

jiwon

Although I mentioned it briefly in my video, to answer your first question, scientists and researchers believe that it will take approximately 5 years before this kind of meat hits the market. They still have to do alterations to the meat and spread the news that the idea of “lab-grown” meat exists.

Towards your second question, yes there are actually many differences in the health of lab grown meat compared to real meat. Lab grown meat doesn’t have any fat content as of right now, which is why food tasters have said that lab-grown meat is almost TOO meaty. It doesn’t have any heme iron as well which is a high suspicion product that may cause cancer found in red meat. It is also much healthier because it is produced in a sterile environment so it will be less prone to diseases.

Third of all… that’s actually a very thought- provoking question! I don’t quite know the answer to that, but I imagine it won’t be because it lab -grown meat starts off with animal cells. However, it won’t necessarily kill the animal itself. I will have to research more into that!

aislyn

The estimations you provided were a good insight into the future implications of your topic. Mentioning the capabilities of our planet was helpful to understand why our consumption was problematic. I really like how you structured your topic in a way that addressed a problem and then proposed a solution! It was valuable to compare our options and make an argument for your topic. The comparisons you provided (for example, vegetarian with a truck vs meat eater with a bike) helped to put things in perspective. I wonder- what is the nutritional value of lab grown meat to the human body in comparison to traditional meat? Do we know that kind of information in these early stages of production?

jiwon

Aislyn, I’m glad you thought my TED talk was interesting and well structured!

Like my answer to Tori’s question, lab grown meat doesn’t have fat content which is why taste testers have said that the meat is TOO meaty. Scientists are looking into this problem right now, they might think to add Omega 3 fatty acids, however, too much of this can cause the meat to be fishy. Also, lab grown meat doesn’t contain heme iron, a high suspicion product found in red meat for a cause of cancer.

deon

I find the visuals you used for the TED Talk extremely simple yet fitting. The diagrams and charts were easy to understand yet communicate information clearly. It’s very professional. I’ve watched a TED Talk saying that comparing the world as “what is” to “what could be” makes a strong and powerful presentation. Which you did perfectly! You first looked at the condition of the world we currently live in with the traditional meat (what is), and then envisioned a world with cultured meat (what could be). I was actually waiting for the claps and applauds after you finished talking!
My questions for you are:
1. How long does it take to produce a piece of lab- grown meat?
2. Why is growing cultured meat so expensive? Is this cost including the equipment that was needed? If it’s so expensive, then how would it make it to the market?
Overall I enjoyed watching your TED Talk Jiwon! I liked the small humor in between that made the talk more engaging and fun to watch! And, instead of calling people to action or demanding for change, the conclusion was left open for the audience’s choice which I thought was very considerate of you.

jiwon

Deon, you always know how to give great stars and wishes! Thanks for editing my speech for me, I”m sure part of the reason why my TED talk had good flow was due to your great editing!

To answer your first question, it takes quite a bit of time to produce a piece of lab-grown meat, about 8 weeks actually. HOwever, scientists are working to make this process simpler and I read somewhere that it’s actually 5 weeks now. It will become way shorter in the future as well.

Cultured meat is expensive due to all the equipment and the research put into the lab grown meat. Remember that cultured meat is a new advancement in food technology and all the research and time costed a lot of money. Actually the market price if we introduced lab grown meat right now would only be approximately 11.36 dollars!

Thanks for your awesome feedback Deon! I’ll put all of this into consideration next time I do a project similar to this!

Nathan

Great Ted Talk, and the way you incorporated images and graphs to support your evidence and help your audience understand what you were talking about more. Your tone of voice was fitting and made you sound like a professional. One thing that would have been better with your powerpoint, is to have less information. When you cram 100 words onto a slide, it does more to distract the audience as they will be busy reading it and not paying attention to you. Having just pictures, with maybe a few point form notes is all that should be on there. I also have a few questions for you:
1. You said that you can produce lab grown meats that are a lot less carcinogenic, but I found this really confusing as you mentioned about how scientists’ don’t know what makes meat carcinogenic, but then went on say how it was heme irons(I think that’s what they were) that caused cancer, and you can make lab grown meat without them, which doesn’t make sense as it is just normal meat, just not grown naturally.
2.Why should we care? I know this makes me sound oblivious, but you didn’t really give a reason to this, other than it’s better for the environment, reduces animal cruelty, and has a smaller ecological footprint. Sure that’s great, but to most consumers, the most important things are taste and price. For example, organic foods have been more environmentally friendly and have a smaller ecological footprint that regular food, but a lot of people choose to not go that route due to it being more expensive. Your talk was mostly giving us a lot of information, but I think instead, your goal should have been to inform, and get people to care about this.
3.How will this affect the economy? Obviously if livestock goes out of fashion, a lot of companies will be losing a lot of business, and new companies as well as jobs will form. How could this affect the global economy? Would there be more jobs with this, or less that conventional methods of eating meat?
Overall a very informative TED talk that was delivered well.

jiwon

Thanks for having such indepth comments and questions Nathan. At least I know that you listened to my TED talk very very closely!

Thanks for giving me stars and wishes. I’ll remember to put less words on the slides!

In answer to your first question, scientists DON’t know what products make red meat carcinogenic, however they have a STRONG suspicion that it is heme iron as it is substance found almost exclusively to meat. Several recent studies also showed that 200,000 post menopausal females that have breast cancer are positively associated with the amount of heme iron in their diet. Labs can grow meat without heme iron, the meat will just be yellow. (Which isn’t very attractive but I mean food ends up being the same once it gets into your stomach)

In answer to your second question, the taste of this meat is almost exactly the same, taste testers say the only difference is that the meat is too meaty as there is not fat in the meat. This can be fixed however, and scientists are working on it. The price for lab grown meat is actually 11.36 if it was introduced to the market right now witch compared to regular meat it is about the same.
My goal for this ted talk was not to get investors, it was to give information. So I think my point was well acrossed don’t you think?

For your last question, yes jobs will be lost. However, with the new lands, there will be new products growing on those lands such as vegetation AND lab produced meat will need employers to make that meat. IT is no easy job to develop cultured meat and will need lots of hand for that as well.

Nathan

Okay thanks for answering my first question, as I was really confused by the way you worded it and explained it in your talk, as it seemed as though you contradicted yourself.

For taste, if meat has no fat, then what do you mean by taste testers thinking that it taste’s normal, just a bit more meaty? It would be a completely different taste if one removed the fat, and most people would care a lot about that. However, as you said with the heme irons, and now the fact that it’s 100% lean meat, it would certainly be marketed as a health product/a specialty product, aimed for who? People that are guilty about the environment, want to eat healthy alternatives, and have too much money to burn. These types of specialty products typically retail at much higher prices, and even if producing it is 11.36(I read that article, which looks to be as reliable as buzzfeed and has no sources, as well as no units or how that 11.36 is split up), the total cost would be a lot higher, as I can almost guarantee that that price is just the cost of the cells and chemicals needed. It wouldn’t include, cost of workers, cost of equipment, cost of labs, cost of transportation or even the R&D costs. Because of this, we can assume that the prices would be much higher, as well as you know, having to sell it at a higher price than it costs to make so you can actually make a profit. All this things combined, not even including the cost of expanding the process on a factory production level scale, would make it a lot more expensive than normal meat, and it’s not like they’re competing against anyone, so they will charge whatever they feel like. This feels like something you see on Dragon’s Den, where the concept is interesting, but it flops due to it being a terrible business model, and even if it succeeds, it’s something you would need to travel 200 km to find a specialty store that sells it. As for making your TED talk informative, that is great and all, but having it create drive in people is something you really want to do; to get them to care or become aware of something they never knew about, information that is useful to make informative decisions.

Jobs will be lost, yes, but that’s not all I am referring to when I mentioned the economy. Livestock is a multibillion dollar industry. You can’t expect that to change within a decade. Not only that, but as stated above, it’s not like lab grown meat is even going to be a mass market thing, so I don’t know the benefit of even debating this point.